


a mess to be solved

by meggiewrites



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Conflict, Goalie Drama, M/M, Therapy Writing, aka im writing this instead of therapy, im so tired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22114804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggiewrites/pseuds/meggiewrites
Summary: Alexander Nübel signs for Bayern, and things for Bayern's goalkeepers (plus one additional significant other) are about to get slightly more difficult.
Relationships: Alexander Nübel/Niklas Süle, Manuel Neuer & Sven Ulreich, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Thomas Müller/Manuel Neuer
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	a mess to be solved

**Author's Note:**

> I'm tired. I'm so so tired. I wrote this instead of breaking down crying thinking about the possibilities, so that probably tells you everything you need to know.
> 
> I know things most likely won't go like this, I know Sven will likely leave next summer and I don't even wanna think about the other things that could happen. But here, have an almost fluffy rendition of me giving into some wishful thinking. I hope you can enjoy this anyway! ~~I can't believe this is my first fic of 2020~~

Sven is worried. Mostly because there isn’t any reason for him not to be.

Listen, he knew. From the moment he’d signed for Bayern, he’d known that he would mostly be benched after the big Manuel Neuer. He got his moment, in the end, during a time when Manu – his _friend_ – was going through one of the roughest periods of his life. Has always known that, once they’d find a suitable candidate to follow after their captain, he would be made number three after the both of them. 

He isn’t upset about that. He well aware what he signed up for. And he knows is that he is still good enough to eventually find some middle or lower tear club in the league that could take him in for a few years if he wanted that. For now he is here, though, for now he is happy, and around people he likes and he can train with every week.

Except now suddenly, everything that has been his reality, their reality, is suddenly challenged.

It’s December, and the trouble comes in the shape of Alexander Nübel.

Manuel Neuer 2.0, some papers call him, parallels that are of course easily drawn. Nübel comes from Schalke, too, even if he isn’t tied to them like Manu had been. He’s roughly the same age though, has a similar style of play … it is obvious.

And yet, here Nübel is, threatening to bring him down, this great titan of goalkeeping who is, underneath it all, a soft, vulnerable, sometimes even scared person. Sven knows he is privileged to even get to see that side of Manu, as it isn’t one he shares readily with anyone but the people he is closest to. Of course, he would never let it show in regards to something like this, but Sven can still tell, how this tugs at the older goalie’s nerves, the thought of not knowing, the knowledge that his chair, once a golden throne, steadfast and secure, suddenly is being shaken as it stands on wobbly legs.

It’s Thomas who first tells him about the talks, one morning as they are having breakfast in the team hotel.

“They asked him if he would be willing to give up some games for him.” Thomas looks at his spoon as if it has done something to offend him.

Sven raises his eyebrows, chewing his porridge slowly. There is pomegranate seeds in it, and they make an odd crunching noise as he bites down on them which are not entirely unpleasant. “What did he say?”

Thomas scoffs, scooping up another spoonful. “No, of course. He’s scared they will replace him sooner rather than later if the kid does sign for us.”

That, Sven understands. All three of them – him, Thomas, Manu – know that refusing something like this will only cause trouble, but the risk in a deal like this is palpable, too big to simply agree to upon first try, even if only to maybe prevent the transfer from happening earlier rather than in a few years. And yeah, in a way, he too had hoped that he’d get a few more months as number two, but still, he looks at Thomas with worry.

“If we get him. Will Manu still sign his contract extension?”

Thomas shrugs with one shoulder as he wolves down another bite. “His agent agreed it wouldn’t be a good idea to give in this easily.” Sven can tell by the tense curve of his neck that he isn’t pleased with any of this development, that they even have to have this conversation at all. He hopes for both their sake that Manu is being open with Thomas about everything. Things like that are important in a healthy relationship, and theirs is one that deserves to be preserved.

“He’s way too stubborn for his own good, that husband of yours.”

The terribly fond half-smile on Thomas’ lips makes Sven miss his wife’s presence dearly. No matter how annoying they can be, how scarring the experience of walking in on them and catching them in the act more than once was, Manu and Thomas have always had their way of reminding him of the importance of love, even if it’s only by small gestures and expressions like this.

It’s January, and Nübel’s transfer has just been announced.

Manu is seething, reeling, Sven can tell by the wild look in his eyes, as they listen to their coach breaking the news, probably only held back from instant eruption by Thomas’ hand on his shoulder, rubbing it carefully, slowly. He’s always been the only one able to calm their captain down when his temper flares up. Thomas lifts his eyes, and for a second, they meet Sven’s, and in one look, they share what they already know – this will affect all three of them more than they want it to.

Brazzo has another talk with Manu and his agent, and Manu comes out of it with his eyebrows drawn together and his lips pressed tight.

Sven has been waiting for him with Thomas, and Manu walks up to them and pries Thomas’ hand from the wall, slipping his fingers in between the lanky forward’s instead. Sven feels his stomach draw together. The fact that Manu is in need of Thomas’ support, physically, demanding it so openly in the middle of a hallway where anyone could walk past, is not exactly a good sign.

“What’s going on?”

Thomas is the first to dare to ask the question, of course he is. His voice is calm, bare of any trembles, but the concern bleeds through it anyway. If it’s concern for Manu, for Manu’s future at Bayern, what that means for their relationship or Manu’s career, he has no idea. Probably, he assumes, as Manu’s nostrils flare and he pushes some fallen strands of hair out of his forehead with a trembling hand, a bit of all of it.

“I agreed.” Manu’s voice is toneless, resigned. “Let’s just hope I didn’t just make the biggest mistake of my career.”

He didn’t sign the contract extension, Sven finds out later. Manu has remained tight-lipped about it, so in the end, once Lisa had already fallen asleep that night, Sven fumbled on the nightstand for his phone, asking him.

 _Not yet_ , Manu types, and Sven takes a relieved breath.

A smile finds his way on his lips.

 _Give the kid a chance. Maybe he doesn’t want to drive you away just yet. They asked you to give up fifteen games a season. He agreed to only_ playing _fifteen a season. He must admire you quite a bit._

_Hmm_

_There’s a lot he could learn from you. And a lot you could teach him._

Sven knows he’s right. Manu knows he is too, and he knows that Sven knows that.

_… promise me you’ll take my side if he does try to stir shit. Can’t have my own understudy turn against me_

Sven fights a grin. _Promise, Captain. I’ve got you_

And that’s that.

Things never go quite back to normal after it, though.

It’s April and Manu always seems a little bit tenser, a bit more distracted, as if his eyes were always drawn to the north-west, where Alexander Nübel is sitting on a bench he willingly took a seat on to learn from the best of the generation before him, like an apprentice to an unwilling teacher.

Manu pulls himself together on matchdays, of course, always delivering, maybe now even more so than before, claiming the highest amount of clean sheets he has the second half of a season in quite a few years, even with their defense still being in absolute shambles. But still, it’s almost tangible, this sudden tension in his every action, every day, with everything he does.

It’s almost endearing, the way Thomas tries to fight it. One time, Sven catches them sitting on a bench in an abandoned away dressing room shortly before their bus has to leave, Manu’s face in Thomas’ hands, Thomas thumbing over the lines on his forehead.

“Stop worrying so much, my dear, I promise, it will work out,” he whispers, and Manu looks as unconvinced as he probably feels when Thomas presses a faint kiss on his forehead.

It feels intimate, special, so Sven almost doesn’t dare to knock on the doorframe to alert them, reminding them that the bus is waiting.

It’s Thomas who pulls Manu up, and Sven wants nothing more than to give their captain a hug. Now, away from the team and the eye of the public, its so easy to see the weight of the worry wearing down on him, and maybe for the first time ever, Sven finds that Manu actually looks his age.

His steps fall in tune with the couple, and it’s only as they almost reach the exit of the stadium that he turns to Manu, eyes catching the blond’s. 

“Thomas is right, you know. There’s no point in worrying. Let’s just finish this season the best we can. There’s no reason to be dwelling in the future when the present is right there.” Manu’s smile is grateful. With a last deep breath, he squares his shoulders and walks on.

And finish it, they do. With a league title almost no one believed in anymore, a respectable semi final spot in the Champions League and the Pokal in their hands, it’s more than they dared to dream of in winter.

That night, Sven walks in on Manu and Thomas once again. They’re all drunk, so he just waves them off and mumbles something along the lines of ‘go on, I’ll forget anyway’ before stumbling out of the bathroom and back into the restaurant, where the festivities are still going on despite it being almost one in the morning.

Sven’s eyes skip over the room to find where he left Lisa with some of the other WAGs, and just as he’s spotted her, he gets caught by his sleeve.

Niklas has his eyebrows drawn tightly together, clearly having to concentrate on having to gather his thoughts all together. Sven steadies him as he sways dangerously, despite knowing it’s futile – if Nikki fell, he wouldn’t be able to catch him. (Considering his ankle only just healed and he still has a European Championship to play, that would be quite the disaster.)

When they do come, Nikki’s words are slightly confusing. “Do you think he will be nice?”

Sven raises his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Alex– Nübel. Do you think he’s nice?”

Oh. “He’s a decent goalkeeper, if that’s what you’re asking. But I don’t think he’s played in the first league for long enough to be able to tell in the long run.” Sven is proud of that sentence. It’s surprisingly coherent, considering his head feels a little bit like it was stuffed with clouds, too.

Nikki nods, and his cheeks are suddenly tinted just a little bit pink. Sven tilts his head.

He hasn’t thought about Alexander Nübel and the agitation he’s going to bring to their team in a good few weeks. He’s surprised Niklas does. Especially now, with the defender’s only second big tournament still ahead of him – one that won’t flop this time, hopefully, too.

Manu hasn’t mentioned the younger goalkeeper since April. It’s May, and when Sven pats’ Manu’s shoulder encouragingly as they say goodbye, wishing him a successful Euros, everything seems unchanged, exactly how it has always been.

Of course, everyone is able to tell that it isn’t like that, that the status quo regarding Germany’s goalkeepers, and Bayern’s too, isn’t what it has been for a long time. They see the two games ter Stegen gets to start while Manu, as the captain, leads Germany to another semi-final. They see Alex Nübel holding up a red kit for the first time as he gets presented a good few days before the rest of them who have stayed at home; they take notice of Manu’s absence from most of social media for the few weeks he gets to enjoy to himself after the Euros. Sven for one knows he’s enjoying his time with Thomas, who has some carefully timed instagram posts going up every now and then, securing their alibi and giving his husband stability for one last time before everything, inevitably, will be different.

Sven meets Alex first on a day hotter than average. He’s training with Toni and Manu is still somewhere in the Maldives. He’s almost a little surprised when he’s suddenly standing in front of him, curious eyes but a tinge of uncertainty in his posture as he holds out his ungloved hand for Sven to take.

His grip is firm but not unpleasant. His smile seems honest.

“Alex.” 

“Sven,” Sven replies, squeezing a bit more than he usually would, mustering the kid carefully. His voice is deep, deeper than Sven expected, but he looks incredibly young. He’s as tall as Manu, but they all are. Toni assignes them an exercise, and the work wordlessly, but without any mistakes, as if they’ve worked together for a long time.

Alex is similar to Manu in so many ways, Sven notices almost immediately, amusedly, from the way he moves in goal to the restlessness in his eyes, to the way he doesn’t really talk much unless someone or something prompts him to.

During shared team lunch, he finds out that his laugh is loud and boisterous, and that he looks nervous as soon Sven brings up Manu’s name. Alex tries to hide it, but the flash of anxiety is obvious to anyone looking close enough. Thomas joined them, apparently unable to resist the temptation of taking a closer look at his husband’s competition. The way Alex, if only for two seconds, looks downright horrified by Thomas, his quick tongue, biting quips (that maybe have a little more snide than usual) and his Bavarian accent is almost a little funny, but Sven has to give the kid credit – he composes himself again surprisingly quickly, talking back to Thomas, giving back almost as good as he’s getting.

Thomas raises his eyebrows, too. As they separate for their different training again, he quickly shakes hands with him, and despite Alex not knowing it, Sven realizes the kid has just passed a test.

It’s July, and Sven knows that the biggest trial is only about to come.

A few weeks later, the Internationals join them in their training, and while Manu, after shouting a quick hello to everyone, shaking hands with Robert, fondly patting David on the back, immediately flocks to where Thomas is waiting for him sitting on the bench, grinning wolfishly as he pulls him into a hug short enough to pass as platonic, passing by Alex completely at first – something that has the younger goalie looking almost disappointed.

It’s Nikki who walks up to their newest addition first, smile crooked and hesitant, but his voice steady as he introduces himself. Alex takes his hand with a perplexed look before he returns Nikki’s smile, an exchange on eye-level.

For some odd reason he can’t quite put a finger on, Sven feels like he just witnessed something important.

It’s July and the air around them is unbearingly hot, the sun burns down from the sky and Sven, Manu and Alex trudge towards their goal. His two colleagues still haven’t talked, and Sven is getting slightly worried. But then Manu drops the bag of balls he’s carrying on the ground, turns around, and while he’s not exactly smiling, the expression on his face at least isn’t open hostility. He makes a grimace, and a chuckle almost escapes Sven’s lips.

Oh, Manu is _trying_.

It takes the entire fifty minute session, but by the end of it. Sven is doing an exercise with Toni as Manu and Alex give each other a hand. It’s a bit strange, how well they suddenly seem to harmonize now that Manu gave up his ice queen persona and they’re actually talking. Alex looks tentatively relieved, and by the time they’re collecting the gear, ready to clean up, Sven turns around and hears them laugh together, one a soft rolling thunder, the other clear as bells, lighter than you’d expect.

It’s only when they walk back to the training room and he watches them walk ahead side by side, exactly the same height, statures so similar too, that Sven incredulously shakes his head to himself as he catches some scraps of their conversation, almost dead-sure he caught ‘Schalke’ being thrown around there and these two suddenly seem as thick as thieves.

“All that drama for nothing, huh?” Thomas quickly pokes his elbow into Sven’s side, cackling as he observes his husband and the guy who was the biggest threat to him chatter away in the seeming harmony of two people who click immediately. “Unbelievable.”

Sven finds that he agrees. 

He only has left to hope that this peace will last.

Surprisingly, it does. It’s October, and the days are getting shorter, the air stiffer, and Sven doesn’t feel like a third wheel anymore. Alex is a good kid, and both Sven and Manu have grown inexplicably fond of him.

“It’s like he’s my annoying little brother. Or my baby cousin or something. No matter how much I sometimes want to kick him back to where he came from, I just … can’t.” Manu had complained just a few days before as they were waiting for their measurements for suits to be taken. But the half-smile had told Sven that there was nothing actually bad about that, and that Manu thought so, too.

Sven hasn’t caught Manu and Thomas in any suggestive situations since the Meisterfeier. And Alex is a part not only of the team but also of their little goalkeeper squad in a way Sven almost hadn’t dared to hope for.

Yeah, things are good.

Except, one day in early November, Manu returns from a short training break with an unreadable grin, making a beeline for Thomas, whispering something to him in unconcealed enthusiasm. Thomas grins, shaking his head fondly. Both of them catch Sven staring, and Thomas gives him a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

Some days, Sven just feels too straight for all of this.

It’s only a week later when he realizes what he’s been missing.

They’re practicing short stops as The field players run past them, and a ball defended by Alex rebounds right in between their feet.

It’s Niklas who it comes to a halt in front, but instead of kicking it in the general direction of the goal, he crouches down to pick it up, jogging over to them. Manu, next to Sven, starts grinning mischievously, quickly poking Sven’s side. Sven gives him a questioning look, but Manu only shrugs.

“Watch.”

Nikki comes to a halt in front of Alex, turning the ball in his hands a few times before holding it out to him. Alex takes it, the material of his gloves catching onto it like a magnet to metal. Sven tilts his head.

Alex smiles, juggling the ball once before passing it to Manu, who catches it with practiced ease. Manu nods at him. Alex’ smile morphs into a grin. He turns back to Nikki, looking him straight in the eyes, leaning in.

“Thanks, babe,” he says, leaving a kiss on the blushing defender’s cheek, leaving Sven gaping and Toni, behind them, face palming audibly. Manu looks way too pleased for his taste as Sven just stares at him, at _them_ as Nikki dorkly waves over his shoulder before he joins the rest of the field players again.

Then, Sven groans. “Really?!”

Manu’s grin only grows smugger as he dribbles the ball onto the ground a few times like a basketball.

“Why me,” Sven mutters, “why _me_.”

Manu pats his back encouragingly, winking at Alex. Alex blushes, and despite shaking his head in theatrical desperation, Sven knows that, yeah.

They will be just okay.

**Author's Note:**

> I write FICTION about real people. None of this is intended to harm them or their reputation in any way. Please leave kudos and maybe a comment if you liked it! | [tumblr](http://manuelmueller.tumblr.com/)


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